- "Morning 4587, beautiful day!"
- —Peter Yorke mocking Oliver Queen[src]
Peter Yorke (born January 1, 1978)[1] is a former prison guard of Slabside Maximum Security Prison. He was fired after being reported by the guards for badly treating the inmates because of his own personal issues and attempting to kill Oliver Queen. Peter is also the husband of Jenna Yorke and the father of Noah Yorke.
Biography
Yorke was born on January 1, 1978. At the age of 19, he joined the army and served 8 years in the military. After being injured in line of duty, he started working at Slabside Maximum Security Prison. He worked there for 12 years, and although Yorke had a clean record as a prison guard, he was not well-liked by the guards and inmates at Slabside, due to how badly Yorke treated them.
At some point, Yorke met and married a woman named Jenna, and they had a son named Noah.
On Yorke's watch as a prison guard, Yorke was unaware of this, but he was the main reason why the rest of his coworkers were corrupted by inmate Daniel Brickwell, as well as why Jarrett Parker tortured several inmates at Level Two.
After Oliver Queen's fight with Ricardo Diaz and his surrendering himself to the FBI, Yorke oversaw Oliver's arrival to Slabside Maximum Security Prison. After Oliver Queen became an inmate, Yorke greeted him in his cell every morning when the latter woke up. After breaking up a fight with Oliver against Danny Brickwell, Ben Turner and Derek Sampson, Yorke sent Turner to solitary confinement. Yorke went to Oliver's cell and blamed him for starting the fight, even though Oliver was trying to defend himself, before telling him he had a visitor. The next day, Yorke went to Oliver's cell to inform him that he had another visitor. One day when the inmates were released into the courtyard, Oliver knocked out Brickwell before proceeding to attack another inmate who had knocked him out in an earlier fight. Yorke ordered him to stand down but Oliver ignored him, so Yorke took him into solitary.[2]
After two days, Yorke released Oliver. While inspecting Oliver's cell, Oliver tried to warn him that Brickwell wanted him dead, but he ignored his warning and told Oliver that he was nothing but a vigilante. Oliver later took matters in his own hands, by stabbing himself and blaming it on Yorke to get him fired, despite Yorke denying it.
After Yorke's removal from Slabside and Oliver breaking up Brickwell's fight club, Yorke was replaced by a guard named Felton as Oliver's handler. Similar to Yorke, Felton started to keep the other guards in line, like Dunbar. Yorke had mocked Oliver about being an inmate in Slabside, however, the FBI had Oliver released and later Ben Turner, much to Yorke's dismay.
Personality
- "The right thing? Is that what you were doing, running around in that costume? You turned the law into a joke. The Green Arrow's very existence invited criminals into your city. You think you're some kind of hero. Have you ever stopped to think maybe all you've done is make things worse?"
- —Peter Yorke to Oliver Queen[src]
Yorke is very arrogant to the point of being delusional, as he believes that he runs Slabside Maximum Security Prison when it is actually the prison warden, despite the clean record that he has, Yorke is not well-liked by both the guards and inmates, due to how badly he treats the inmates and tries to get on their nerves for his own amusement, such as Oliver Queen, according to Oliver, Stanley Dover and Ben Turner respectively; he is a hardass, jerk and dick, as he treats the other inmates like slaves, Yorke is also arrogant towards individuals that he believes are inferior to him, like Oliver, as the only thing that Yorke knows about Oliver is that he was once a billionaire and vigilante, Yorke seems to enjoy treating Oliver badly most of all since he would rudely and childishly wake him every morning by him slamming his baton on the cell bars, mocking him about how everyday is a beautiful day, Yorke even blamed Oliver for starting a fight with Ben, Danny Brickwell and Derek Sampson even though they started it, forcing Oliver to defend himself. Yorke even listens in on Oliver's conversations when it is none of his business; such as him listening in on Oliver speaking to John Diggle.
Yorke always finds a way to anger every inmate and likes to take out his issues on them, after Oliver assaulted Brickwell, Ben and Sampson, a fight that Yorke did not break up, he angered Oliver by telling him that they both know better Oliver is not a hero due to Yorke growing up with wealthy children who thought the laws didn't apply to them and mocked Oliver about being an inmate at Slabside as well as calling him a bastard, mocking him about Robert Queen's death. Even before Oliver retaliated against Brickwell, Sampson and Turner, Yorke warned him to not be a hero. Yorke seems to dehumanize the inmates, like Oliver, by calling them by their inmate numbers as opposed to their real names.
Yorke ignores warnings from other inmates, as Oliver who was trying to warn him that someone (Brickwell) wants him dead, even though Oliver was trying to warn Yorke that Brickwell was planning to kill him, he insulted Oliver by claiming he made Star City dangerous by being Green Arrow even though Yorke does not live there with his family and would not be concerned if the citizens living in Star City were in danger. Despite Yorke claiming Oliver made Star City dangerous as Green Arrow, on his watch as a prison guard, Yorke is responsible for making Slabside more dangerous: while Yorke was unaware of this, his coworkers, including B. Dunbar, were corrupted by Brickwell and the inmates were tortured by Jarrett Parker down at Level Two (Yorke knew Level Two existed, but was unaware of the fact that Parker and his coworkers were lobotomizing the inmates down there). Yorke should have noticed his coworkers were working for Brickwell as well as having done a background check on Parker as well as Oliver. This proves that Yorke was very delusional thinking Slabside was the way he wanted it to be and that he ran the prison.
Yorke claims to know Oliver very well due to having grown up with wealthy children who thought the laws never applied to them. However, Yorke doesn't know Oliver that well: despite treating Oliver badly and insulting him, Oliver was willing to stab himself just to prevent Brickwell from killing Yorke (Brickwell wanted Yorke gone knowing that Yorke would eventually find out about the corruption in the prison. Brickwell was planning to kill Yorke since Oliver refused to do it.
Eventually, Yorke started to get on every inmate and guard's nerves, to the point that they wanted him out of the prison; dead or fired, these negative traits of his made it simple for his co-workers, such as B. Dunbar, to believe he tried to kill Oliver, especially due to several complaints made about him by the other inmates, his self-righteous nature aside, as Oliver noted, he was at his core still a law-abiding man who kept the other guards in line which is why Brickwell wanted him gone in order to establish his fight club. Yorke was a slightly competent guard at Slabside as he was always keeping the guards in line and breaking up the fights in the prison that the inmates would cause. Although Yorke believes in the law and insults Oliver for breaking broken the law as a vigilante, Yorke, as Stanley noted, is willing to break the law even if it means protecting his family as he was about to attack Oliver with a baton when Oliver said the names of his wife and son which is not illegal. Despite Yorke being a family man, he refuses to respect anyone's families even if they are in danger, he refused to let Oliver spend more time with Felicity after Yorke learned she was attacked and when Oliver begged for more time, he refused, telling Oliver that he doesn't care that he needs more time with his wife, Yorke also purposely stepped on a picture of Felicity and William after tossing it to the ground when Oliver was trying to reveal to Yorke that Brickwell wanted to kill Yorke, this proves Yorke is a very delusional individual who only looks out for himself. When Oliver was confronting him about his bad behavior, Yorke refused to explain why he does all this and tried to intimidate Oliver into leaving; proving that Yorke is nothing more than a coward, who tries to put up a tough façade.
Although Yorke was delusional and abusive towards the inmates, Ben Turner credited Oliver for stabbing himself to protect Yorke as Turner knew Brickwell would kill Yorke if Oliver didn't. It also seems most likely that if Yorke ever came to senses, he would respect Oliver for what he had done. But because Yorke will never come to his senses, Yorke was very disappointed to learn that the FBI decided to release Oliver from prison and that Oliver was using his vigilante methods to aid the SCPD as the Green Arrow after being deputized by them. Yorke was also disappointed when Ben Turner was released later as well.
Appearances
Arrow
Season 6
Season 7
- "Inmate 4587"
- "The Longbow Hunters"
- "Crossing Lines" (mentioned)
- "The Slabside Redemption" (mentioned)
Behind the scenes
- Ryan Jefferson Booth, Yorke's actor, previously portrayed Andre in DC's Legends of Tomorrow.
